The son of Cuban immigrants,Marco Rubio is a compelling package, charismatic with an engaging smile and snappy oratory.
Des Moines, United States:
Marco Rubio is likened by rivals to a Republican version of Barack Obama: they dismiss him as a youthful overachiever with a penchant for soaring oratory.
But Rubio, just 44, proved Monday he is a force to be reckoned with after muscling in to challenge the frontrunner Donald Trump for second place behind Ted Cruz in the Iowa caucuses.
The Florida senator, whose star has risen in recent weeks, took more than 23 percent in the contest that launches the long process to choose a new US president.
"They told me that we have no chance because my hair wasn't gray enough and my boots were too high," he told ecstatic supporters afterwards, in a nod to repeated jabs from his Republican rivals over his choice of footwear.
"They told me I needed to wait my turn, that I needed to wait in line."
"But tonight here in Iowa, the people of this great state sent a very clear message," Rubio said as he staked his claim to be the candidate of the Republican establishment.
The son of Cuban immigrants, Rubio is a compelling package: charismatic with an engaging smile and snappy oratory.
Many envision him becoming the nation's first Hispanic commander-in-chief, in a rags-to-political-riches story embodying the American Dream.
He breaks the traditional social conservative mold: he goes to church with wife Jeanette and their four children, but since childhood he has been a hip-hop fan, often hailing genre pioneers Grandmaster Flash and Tupac Shakur.
And he is bilingual, a major asset for the Republican Party, which has felt the sting of Hispanic voter abandonment.
Rubio's strong showing in Iowa comes six years after he burst onto the national stage, beating his party's favored candidate to become senator for Florida in 2010.
Rubio was then little known and started off from scratch, working his way up in the polls and winning over voters as a fresh young face for conservative Republicans eager for a point man in Washington to counter Obama.
He rode the Tea Party wave that sent several advocates of small government to Congress.
Cuban Son
As a child, Rubio assured his exiled grandfather he would overthrow Fidel Castro to lead Cuba.
He was born in Miami in 1971, the son of poor Cuban refugees who fled the island 15 years earlier to escape poverty.
After Castro seized power in 1959, the family decided never to return to Cuba, a country Rubio has never known.
But Cuba is a recurring theme for the first-term senator, whose ambitions reflect those of generations of refugees eager to carve out better lives in America.
"I am the son of immigrants, exiles from a troubled country," he wrote in his 2012 memoir, "An American Son."
"They gave me everything it was in their power to give. And I am proof their lives mattered, their existence had a purpose."
The son of a bartender and a housemaid, Rubio grew up in Miami's Cuban-American community, although the family spent five years in Las Vegas, where they converted briefly to the Mormon faith before returning to Catholicism.
Influenced by his grandfather, who spoke no English, Rubio developed a passion for politics. He was a fan of Senator Ted Kennedy, a Democratic icon, before falling hard for Republican president Ronald Reagan.
Just two years after earning a law degree, he was elected in 1998 to the West Miami City Commission. A year later, it was Florida's House of Representatives, where he rose to become speaker in 2006. In 2010 he began his term in the Senate.
Interventionist
On his arrival in Washington, conservatives traumatized by Obama's election believed they had found their savior.
But his Tea Party support plunged in 2013 after he helped craft comprehensive immigration reform that would have legalized millions of undocumented migrants.
Rubio has sought to recover. While backing off his immigration plan, he has worked hard to prove that beyond his formidable communication skills he can lead a conservative renewal.
He has unveiled proposals to reduce poverty and introduced pension system reforms without forgetting fundamental conservative values like traditional marriage.
"We need to recognize societal breakdown, the fact that too many Americans in childhood are not acquiring values like hard work and sacrifice and self-control," he told AFP in 2013.
Rubio champions an aggressive foreign policy and muscular defense.
More interventionist than isolationist, he argues that global flashpoints require Washington to be more engaged abroad.
And yet he seeks to place Cuba in the same category as Iran, isolating it at all costs and has led opposition to Obama's detente with the island of his ancestors.
But Rubio, just 44, proved Monday he is a force to be reckoned with after muscling in to challenge the frontrunner Donald Trump for second place behind Ted Cruz in the Iowa caucuses.
The Florida senator, whose star has risen in recent weeks, took more than 23 percent in the contest that launches the long process to choose a new US president.
"They told me that we have no chance because my hair wasn't gray enough and my boots were too high," he told ecstatic supporters afterwards, in a nod to repeated jabs from his Republican rivals over his choice of footwear.
"They told me I needed to wait my turn, that I needed to wait in line."
"But tonight here in Iowa, the people of this great state sent a very clear message," Rubio said as he staked his claim to be the candidate of the Republican establishment.
The son of Cuban immigrants, Rubio is a compelling package: charismatic with an engaging smile and snappy oratory.
Many envision him becoming the nation's first Hispanic commander-in-chief, in a rags-to-political-riches story embodying the American Dream.
He breaks the traditional social conservative mold: he goes to church with wife Jeanette and their four children, but since childhood he has been a hip-hop fan, often hailing genre pioneers Grandmaster Flash and Tupac Shakur.
And he is bilingual, a major asset for the Republican Party, which has felt the sting of Hispanic voter abandonment.
Rubio's strong showing in Iowa comes six years after he burst onto the national stage, beating his party's favored candidate to become senator for Florida in 2010.
Rubio was then little known and started off from scratch, working his way up in the polls and winning over voters as a fresh young face for conservative Republicans eager for a point man in Washington to counter Obama.
He rode the Tea Party wave that sent several advocates of small government to Congress.
Cuban Son
As a child, Rubio assured his exiled grandfather he would overthrow Fidel Castro to lead Cuba.
He was born in Miami in 1971, the son of poor Cuban refugees who fled the island 15 years earlier to escape poverty.
After Castro seized power in 1959, the family decided never to return to Cuba, a country Rubio has never known.
But Cuba is a recurring theme for the first-term senator, whose ambitions reflect those of generations of refugees eager to carve out better lives in America.
"I am the son of immigrants, exiles from a troubled country," he wrote in his 2012 memoir, "An American Son."
"They gave me everything it was in their power to give. And I am proof their lives mattered, their existence had a purpose."
The son of a bartender and a housemaid, Rubio grew up in Miami's Cuban-American community, although the family spent five years in Las Vegas, where they converted briefly to the Mormon faith before returning to Catholicism.
Influenced by his grandfather, who spoke no English, Rubio developed a passion for politics. He was a fan of Senator Ted Kennedy, a Democratic icon, before falling hard for Republican president Ronald Reagan.
Just two years after earning a law degree, he was elected in 1998 to the West Miami City Commission. A year later, it was Florida's House of Representatives, where he rose to become speaker in 2006. In 2010 he began his term in the Senate.
Interventionist
On his arrival in Washington, conservatives traumatized by Obama's election believed they had found their savior.
But his Tea Party support plunged in 2013 after he helped craft comprehensive immigration reform that would have legalized millions of undocumented migrants.
Rubio has sought to recover. While backing off his immigration plan, he has worked hard to prove that beyond his formidable communication skills he can lead a conservative renewal.
He has unveiled proposals to reduce poverty and introduced pension system reforms without forgetting fundamental conservative values like traditional marriage.
"We need to recognize societal breakdown, the fact that too many Americans in childhood are not acquiring values like hard work and sacrifice and self-control," he told AFP in 2013.
Rubio champions an aggressive foreign policy and muscular defense.
More interventionist than isolationist, he argues that global flashpoints require Washington to be more engaged abroad.
And yet he seeks to place Cuba in the same category as Iran, isolating it at all costs and has led opposition to Obama's detente with the island of his ancestors.
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